


Best Kept Secret

by nerdy_go



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-30 13:10:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8534404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdy_go/pseuds/nerdy_go
Summary: It starts out with one fake kiss.





	

Mary Margaret walked out of the main building to find her friends mulling around their usual meeting area, the head of a trail leading to the school’s multipurpose field. It was quite a few minutes after the bell. The busses had already left the parking lot, but there were still a fair amount of uniformed students loitering on the grounds.

“Hey!” Ruby nodded. Her hands were too busy mid-braid to wave. She and Mulan had just finished changing in the locker room after their last period gym class, and her long, flowing hair always took ages to fix after a good session.

Mulan was absently knocking her soccer ball around, ready to leave whenever, but still the image of patience compared to how Merida would usually fidget and pace waiting for the last person to show up. Which was regularly Mary Margaret.

Today, though, Mary Margaret was only second-to-last.

The wily red-head was still unaccounted for.

Belle rejoined the world outside her Russian literature text, and tucked the book under her arm. 

“Would you by chance’ve see Merida on your way out?” she asked. 

“No, I didn’t,” Mary Margaret answered, “You think she’s okay?”

Belle was Merida’s only friend in the entire school when she’d transferred over (after a big deal of being expelled from her last school mid-semester), and she’d always made it a point to look after her.

Now approaching winter break, Merida had made a friend of most of Belle’s group enough to call herself one of them.

She still hated Immaculate Heart Catholic School as a whole, though, and for her to be the last out of class even after Little Miss _I’ll help you clean the classroom_ Blanchard? Something was up.

Mulan halted the soccer ball with her heel as it tried to slip away. Her phone buzzed loudly.

“She’s on her way,” Mulan said after reading the message.

“That’s good!” Mary Margret smiled.

“Yes, but some ‘ _goons’_ held her up in the courtyard on the way out.”

That was all the message said, evidently, as Mulan pocketed her phone again and started attempting a trick with the soccer ball. 

“Hope they weren’t giving her trouble,” Belle commented, worried.

Ruby laughed.

“Hmm, well, we’ll see if anybody shows up with a black eye tomorrow, huh?” she said.

“Or comes out the door crying with a broken nose…” Belle added, voice grave.

“I’ll check…” Mulan volunteered.

She passed the ball to Ruby, who intercepted even with her hands full, and began trotting back to the school. She didn’t have to make it far, though. The bright beacon of Merida’s hair came into view not a moment later.

“Hey!” Mulan called, “Was just about to come looking for you…”

There was a huge smile across Merida’s face, and seeing it, Mulan felt compelled to smile herself.

The other came sauntering up, per usual.

“Are you okay? Belle was worried you got into some troub—”

There were four boys in a suspicious huddle a few steps behind Merida. They fit the category of _‘goons’._ Mulan felt her defences raise immediately. Her expression falling into the typical composure of her _wushu_ exhibition game-face.

She’d hate to get into it on school grounds, but if the four wanted to start something—Mulan was going to give them a good run.

Her voice fell into a whisper as Merida moved closer.

_“—_ Trouble. Are you in trouble?”

“Sorta… I need _yer_ ’ help.” Merida smiled almost guiltily now.

Mulan was calculating their best exit strategy. Two guys to the both of them was doable, but Mulan would prefer not having it out in front of so many witnesses. It would be best to do only enough to walk away.

“What do you—”

Merida kept moving closer, Mulan almost didn’t realize until it was far too late. She was too busy eyeing the goons. One was about to approach when Merida reached Mulan, and _touched her face gently_.

What?

Mulan didn’t know what to anticipate. _Couldn’t_ have known. Her eyes blew wide open as Merida leaned in, and pressed her lips crudely on Mulan’s, who suddenly wavered.

Mulan was suddenly caught off-guard in a way she’d never been before… She felt like she was slipping backwards with how disoriented she was then. She felt herself stumble back, and Merida’s arm came up and wrapped around her shoulder as if to catch her. 

They definitely spun. Merida was spinning them. 

It was clear she was leading… this. 

Was Merida really… kissing Mulan? 

When had Mulan closed her eyes? 

Perhaps, that moment when she realized she was just staring at Merida’s closed eyes, and thought, _“I should probably be doing that?”_ Mulan didn’t know any better.

She truly did not know.

Far behind them, their friends Mary Margaret, Belle, and Ruby saw the whole thing, and were absolutely stunned. Mulan’s soccer ball had managed to get away from Ruby, whose mouth hung open in disbelief. Mary Margaret was doing repeat double-takes between the two and Belle as if to ask: _When did this happen? Where was I when this happened?_

None were more confused than Mulan, who was just now becoming aware of anything. Aware of how _unbelievably_ soft Merida’s lips were. Just becoming acquainted with how warm, too, _sooo_ warm her mouth was. 

The pressure against Mulan’s lips was… sloppy. 

It was rushed. It was— _though Mulan still couldn’t judge_ —borderline obscene. 

And then it ended. 

Merida released her, and pulled away smiling like the cat who caught the canary.She left Mulan in a daze. 

Certainly, Mulan had never been more lost in her life. She licked her lips, and looked at Merida questioningly, but the other’s attention was on the by-standing _goons_.

She began yelling at them, but Mulan couldn’t tell what she was saying. The lilt of her voice carried and pervaded Mulan’s ears fine, but _words_ were not the thing Merida could do with her mouth that Mulan’s thoughts were consumed with.

“So you lot can _shove_ it already!” Merida shouted in a way that curled in her thick accent, heavily implying she wanted to say more than just _shove,_ and she wasn’t finished .

“No man’s taking me to any _stupid_ dance, much less any of the four of ya, _aye_?!”

The de facto leader goon was the closest, and he flipped his hand at Merida like he was over it. The rest lost interest too, she supposed, and Merida was pleased with that as they carried themselves back up the steps and disappeared into the building.

She turned to grin at Mulan conspiratorially, pulling the other back into her arm in a much more platonic fashion.

“Hey, thanks for that! I swear _nae_ a thing I was tellin’em could get through their thick skulls,” Merida joked as if Mulan had loaned her a pen or something as nonchalant at that.

But Merida had _kissed_ her. 

What was that?

Did that really happen?

“Yeah…” Mulan said more for herself than anything, “Sure?”

Merida spun them around, turning them straight at their friends, who were waiting expectantly back at the trailhead. She was saying something, but again the words were lost on Mulan.

Perhaps they weren’t getting through Mulan’s thick skull?

“I have to go,” Mulan announced before Merida could lead them any further toward Mary Margaret, Belle, or Ruby.

Ruby looked the most flabbergasted of the three, by far.

“I’ll talk to you later…” Mulan said.

And just like that ( _like the kiss?_ ), Mulan broke away and started walking at a very brisk pace toward the front gates.

“Oh… Okay, I suppose I’ll see ya tomorrow!”

The three made it to Merida a moment too short to catch Mulan. Belle came right up to Merida, and whispered, “What was—”

“The hell was that?!” Ruby interrupted. “Merida, what… _What the hell?!”_

From a distance beyond them, near the parking lot, a whistle blew and garnered their attention. Ruby’s coach made a gesture, and she read his lips saying _watch your language._ This wasn’t a first.

But that kiss sure was.

“What the hell was that, Merida?” Ruby whispered angrily.

“Are you and Mulan together? We didn’t know…. We didn’t know, right guys?” Mary Margaret asked, still not trusting that everyone wasn’t in on a secret she wasn’t.

“You are _not_ together,” Ruby shook her head, “Mulan tells me everything. She would’ve _told_ me if you had gotten together!”

“ _We mean_ ,” Belle spoke with a pointedly level tone, “If you _were_ together, that wouldn’t be a problem, you could have told us if you were…”

Merida made a scoffing noise, and shook her head.

“Relax! I was just trying to get those buffoons off my tail,” she explained, “They’d been following me all ‘round the school trying to get me to go to the dance with one o’ them. They wouldn’t take _no_ for an answer!”

“And Mulan knew this?” Mary Margaret asked. “You needed a… _diversion_ , and Mulan was aware you needed a cover?”

“Well… yeah,” Merida said sounding not-so-convincing.

Ruby sure wasn’t convinced. She rolled her eyes.

“ _Yeah_ , that’s why she walked away without a word…”

Ruby fancied herself pretty close to Merida. Not nearly as close as she was to Mulan, but enough to know the both of them could be pretty oblivious.

It was then that Merida noticed Mulan’s backpack in Ruby’s hand, and her favorite soccer ball (which was obvious because it was gold with _Mulan_ written on it) under Ruby’s arm.

“Oh… _oh_ …” Merida grimaced, “I might’ve just made an arse of myself, haven’t I?”

“Yeah, a fucking big one,” Ruby growled.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first attempt posting to this site, so please tell me if I've made formatting errors or anything like that. I have a vague idea of where this will go, with no less than three chapters and no more than five. Endgame is kind of fuzzy, so I'd love opinions! This is also the first OUAT fanfic I've ever written (only caught up to through season 5 last week) just for reference but this doesn't mean to go light on any criticism. I have some experience in other fandoms, on other sites. Appreciate anything that helps the writing.
> 
> Hope this story goes well, and you enjoy it! Thanks for reading!


End file.
